A woman's plea for help scrawled in red lipstick on a restroom wall helped police rescue her and two children after they were allegedly abducted by her estranged husband.

Edid Naranjo Leary's ordeal began Monday night in Richmond, near Houston.She told police her husband accused her of having an affair and forced her and the boys, ages 3 and 9, into a truck. Leary, 31, said her husband began talking about killing himself and "taking her with him." They had recently separated.

She wrote messages in restrooms everywhere she could get her husband to stop, police said, including a Dairy Queen and a convenience store.

By Tuesday, the family was in Corpus Christi, where Leary wrote her name and the words, "Please help me," on the restroom wall of a Wal-Mart.

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A customer alerted an assistant manager, who called police. The family was rescued and the 32-year-old man, whose name was not released because he had not been charged, was jailed.

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